An epic novel that brings to life one of the most significant historical events of the past millennium: The Fall of the Byzantine Empire. The novel is based on the historical context of the clash between Christianity and Islam, that led to the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the destruction of the Byzantine Empire. While historical fact is the starting point, the aim is to focus on the human aspect of these events: The sadness, desolation, and hopeless heroism of the Byzantines, the ruthless cunningness and determination of the Turks. With power thought, face to face with historical fact, the author Maria Lampadaridou Pothou conveys, minute by minute, the ultimate agony of the last days of the Imperial City, the struggle of that tragic besieget people, who became a universal symbol. But beyond that, Maria Lampadaridou Pothou, with her hero as a mythic axis, describes the decline of Byzantium, as well as the painful experience of the Greek people after the Fall – an experience that gave rise to the flowering of the Greek spirit in Western centers of the Renaissance.
I tried to give to my character Porfyrios, supernatural and mythical powers. That is because people who become legends ascend in a higher dimension. I had to bring harmony between my mythical characters, the ones i created, and the historical ones so they can coexist.
I believe that my very humane Myth has contributed to the readers' affection for this large epic volume. Alongside the tragic historical events, my character's human drama unfolds, as well as his existential angst, like a transmutation of the whole painful experience of Greece's annihilation.As I read its pages now, the next words come to mind, the next meaning and how I was searching for it, to articulate it, I remember the anxiety of every moment. It was written with such force, as if the whole book was engraved in my mind, imprinted as an oath. Writing this novel, I learned that our lives are a verification of the inexplicable. To us, to our human perception, only this "verification" is obvious, but not the inexplicable itself. This remains in an unmovable silence. Like those prophecies have spoken a thousand years ago about how the City would fall, as the last full moon would be lost. And that is something I still couldn't accept. I am still tormented, like unanswered questions, by those emblems, the signs that have appeared in those last days heralding death. Many times, the scream comes to my sleep and wakes me up. The scream of Porphyrios. It was for me a reference to the adventure of all Hellenism's woe. The time my bloodied Porphyrius gave his son, Constantine, to strangers who were fleeing, to save him. How does this cry spring from inside me? From which inaccessible depths of another life that lay dormant in our souls? And I say. This is how vulnerable we are as humans. So incomplete. So little we are allowed to know.
Reviews
The City has been taken, review by Leonidas Veliaroutis
The City has been taken, review by Dimitris Stamelos
The metaphysical dimension in the work of m.l.p., study of Eri Stavropoulou
Πήραν την Πόλη πήραν την, κριτική της Ελένης Χωρεάνθη
Πήραν την Πόλη πήραν την, κριτικός λόγος του Άρη Τερζόπουλου
Πήραν την Πόλη πήραν την, κριτικός λόγος του Κώστα Μιχαηλίδη
Πήραν την Πόλη, πήραν την, ομιλία-κριτικός λόγος της Μαρίας Καραβία
Η θυσία και το θαύμα, αυθεντικό, Ελ. Γκίκα, στο Έθνος
Πήραν την Πόλη πήραν την, Θέματα λογοτεχνίας, του Κώστα Μιχαηλίδη
Πήραν την Πόλη πήραν την, Νέα Εστία, του Μιτσάκη
Πήραν την Πόλη κριτική Μερακλή στην Λέξη
Πήραν την Πόλη, πήραν την, κριτική από αναγνώστρα
Επετειακά, Αναρτήσεις
Επετειακό της Αλώσεως, στο ΒΗΜΑ της ΚΥΡΙΑΚΗΣ, Μάης 2021, Πήραν την Πόλη, πήραν την
Πόσο πεπρωμένη ήταν η Άλωση της Πόλης, Καθημερινή
Οι τελευταίες μέρες του Βυζαντίου, αυθεντικό
Τελευταίες μέρες, Απογεματινή, Παρνασάς, αυθεντικό
Η Μαρία Λαμπαδαρίδου – Πόθου στο εργαστήρι του συγγραφέα
Interviews
The City has been taken, interview with Marianthi Kounia
The City has been taken, interview with Kostia Kontoleon
The City has been taken, interview with Alexis Mostrios
The City has been taken, interview with George Kiousis
“Πήραν την Πόλη πήραν την”, ομιλία στην Έκθεση Βιβλίου Θεσσαλονίκης, σε ειδική εκδήλωση
Author's thoughts
The City has been taken, Writer's workshop, For the book's new path in time by Patakis Publications
The City has been taken, Writer's workshop, m.l.p. in first person, diastixo
The last Εmperor of Byzantium, About…
The last Emperor of Byzantium, Author’s note
Excerpt
“The last Emperor of Byzantium” Chapter One: “To Lemnos, the Isle Beloved…”
The last Emperor of Byzantium, the last chapter “My son, my Constantine”
The last Emperor of Byzantium, Chapters from the novel
The book translated into English by Minoas Pothos and Theony Condos was published in 2000 by Aris Terzopoulos, TERZO BOOKS, with the title "Byzantium – The fall". The book is out of circulation.